TNAG-2180-FCO40-3117-Hong-Kong-nationality-international-support-1990 — Page 162

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HOUSE OF COMMONS

LONDON SWIA OAA

8th January 1990

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Ps/Mr Mande Mr Gillarre Mr Melave Мобави MrLidington PRE FED

Following the Government's recently announced decision about the granting of British passports to selected Hong Kong citizens, I thought I would remind you of our recent meeting at which this was one of the subjects we discussed. You will recall that the three of us who saw you were reporting back on our recent visit to the People's Republic. During the visit, the situation in Hong Kong was discussed in detail and at length.

In our conversation, and in my earlier report back to Robin McLaren, I recalled the concern expressed to us by Chinese government leaders that

that they felt that somehow HMG was seeking to re-negotiate parts of the 1984 Joint Agreement.

Let me start my letter by disocciating myself from those whose objections to the Government's policy are concerned with British immigration policy. Whilst the views they express are undoubtedly shared by a number of my constituents, they form no part of my conclusion that the Government is mistaken in what it is trying to achieve. Strangely, throughout all the recent discussion little attention appears to have been paid to the underlying assumptions in the Government's policy. These are not being challenged and should be subjected to scrutiny.

My concern is for the maintenance of stability and prosperity in Hong Kong, which seems to me likely to be undermined rather than sustained if your policy succeeds. The under- standable clamour from certain sections of the population in Hong Kong for the right of abode in Britain has been bolstered by the events of last June in Beijing. Deplorable as these were, they do not alter the underlying fact that the Chinese government is committed to the 1984 Agreement for practical, political and economic reasons, rather than for any philanthropic concern for the welfare of the people of Hong Kong. June 1989 in Beijing has not changed that. Hong Kong's wellbeing has never depended on the establishment of what might be described as a 'western style democracy' in Beijing which has never existed and probably never will in our lifetimes. These underlying factors have been ignored certain amount of wave of emotion, combined with a opportunism, have raised in Hong Kong the spectre of the colony's future demise.

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